Toilet Paper Lab

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Name:___________________________________________ Period: __________ Date: ___________________
Scientific Method: Toilet Paper Lab
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Suppose you are a scientist working for a consumer-testing agency, which evaluates
the effectiveness of various consumer products. You have been asked to evaluate three brands of toilet paper
to determine which brand has the greatest strength when wet.
RESEARCH QUESTION: Which brand of toilet paper will hold the most pennies when wet?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Examine each brand of tissue. Think of things such as the papers’ texture (rough, smooth, scratchy) thickness,
etc. Make observations using your 5 senses!
Angel Soft (blue dot):________________________________________________________________________
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White Cloud (red dot):________________________________________________________________________
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Great Value (green dot):______________________________________________________________________
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HYPOTHESIS (Claim):
Make a prediction about the outcome of the experiment:
___________________toilet paper will be the strongest because _____________________________________
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Identify the variables in the experiment:
Independent Variable: (the one thing your are changing each time) ___________________________________
Dependent Variable: (what are you counting or measuring) _________________________________________
Control: (what are you keeping the same each time) _______________________________________________
MATERIALS:
 3 squares of Angel Soft toilet paper with blue dots on them
 3 squares of White Cloud toilet paper with red dots on them
 3 squares of Great Value toilet paper with green dots on them
 1 plastic beaker
 1 rubber band
 20 pennies
 1 dropper
 Water (in a plastic cup)
PROCEDURE:
(Write down each step of the procedure that you and your partner followed. You may not need each
blank. If you repeat steps, you may say “repeat steps…”.)
1. ____________________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________________________________
6. ____________________________________________________________________________________
7. ____________________________________________________________________________________
8. ____________________________________________________________________________________
9. ____________________________________________________________________________________
10. ____________________________________________________________________________________
11. ____________________________________________________________________________________
12. ____________________________________________________________________________________
DATA AND RESULTS
Table 1: Number of Pennies Applied Before Breaking
Toilet paper
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Mean
Other Observations:
(qualitative data)
Angel Soft: Blue Dot
White Cloud: Red Dot
Great Value: Green Dot
GRAPH:
CONCLUSION: (complete sentences)
1. Summarize your results – which toilet paper was the strongest?
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2. What information (evidence) convinced you that this toilet paper was the strongest? Look at your graph.
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3. Make an inference - why do you think that the toilet paper that was the strongest outperformed the
others?
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4. Restate your hypothesis – was it correct or not?
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5. If you were to perform this experiment again, what would you change in your procedure? Why would you
make those changes?
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